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How To Answer The Question 'What Was Your Last Salary?'

You have to be prepared to talk about salary on a job interview, even before you talk to people in person. There’s a good chance they’ll ask you about your salary history in the very first piece of correspondence you receive once you’ve submitted a resume in response to a job posting.

A lot of job ads tell you to send your salary history along with a resume and cover letter. Don’t do that — your salary history is nobody’s business but your own. You can give them what they need by specifying your salary target instead of your salary history. A screener looking at a stack of resumes or opening file after file in quick succession on her screen won’t even notice the distinction between salary history and salary target. As long as your number is within the range that the employer has already specified for the position, you’ll be fine.

You can just include a sentence in your cover letter that says “In this job search I’m focusing on roles in the $55K range.”

You will need to know your salary target as you begin your job search. Don’t use job ads and job interviews as your market-value research, because companies are trying to play it very cheap right now. They’ll delude themselves that they can get an experienced Director of Marketing with 15 years of experience running huge campaigns, and pay that person $60K. Don’t depress your own true market value by buying into other people’s delusions. Use Salary and Payscale to peg your actual, current market value.

There are employers who will tell you “We pay under market.” Think about what those words mean. The market rate is what other companies are paying. The market sets itself, like any market – like the value of your home or of a used car you’re looking to sell or buy. When somebody tells you “Our company pays under the market” they mean that they couldn’t care less what your value is in the talent marketplace. They are hoping someone who doesn’t know his value or whose mojo is depleted and self-confidence diminished will come and work for them for galley-slave wages. You can’t grow your flame in a place like that. Don’t do it!

Once you get to a face-to-face interview, the topic of salary is likely to come up. I don’t want you to bring it up on a first interview, but they might. They’ll do it like this most of the time:

THEM: So, what were you earning at Acme Explosives?

YOU: Er — sixty-seven five.

That’s a low-mojo answer. Your salary history is your own business. Are they going to tell you what they were paying the last person in this role? Is the HR person going to tell you what he or she is earning? They’re not going to do that, so why should you give up confidential information of your own?

If you believe that employers are godly and you are nothing, and if you believe that someone is doing you a huge favor by hiring you, you’ve got a mojo deficit. You can’t job-hunt effectively in that state. You have to gather your good friends around and get them to help you remember that you are strong and capable and that you’re worth every penny you’re asking for, if not much more.

When you don’t see your own value, you’re going to bring in employers who will undervalue and mistreat you. You’ve got to have your feet under you in order to go on a job search with the confidence that the right employer for you is out there. People who want to get the cheapest help they can find aren’t worthy of your gifts.

Let’s prepare for the question “What were you earning before?” and play it a different way.

THEM: So, what were you earning at Acme Explosives?

YOU: For this job search I’m focusing on opportunities in the seventy-five kay range.

There are two possibilities. One is that the interviewer makes a note on her clipboard and says “Okay.” The other is that s/he presses for your past salary.

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This article represents incredibly poor advice. By refusing to disclose prior salary details you are just going to come off as somebody with something to hide. I hope the article is not too widely read because its going to cost a lot of people their jobs before they have even had the chance to start.

I freelance over th℮ internet and earn about 80-85$ an hour. I was without a job for 7 months but last month my paycheck with big fat bonus was $15000 just working on my computer from my home for 5-6 hours. Here’s what i have been doing… http://w.atch.me/GxiDxl

I disagree with this approach. While dodging the question about your salary may or may not make sense, taking this article’s advice about telling them upfront the salary you are looking for would be a big mistake. The first rule of negotiation is to have the other party name their price first. If you say you are looking for something in the 75k range and they were planning on offering you 85k, you have just shot yourself in the foot. Their goal is always to save money so they will just offer you 75k. If when it comes time to talk about salary, you say, “Well what is the range for this position?” they then have to name their price first and you have the upper hand.

Great article! One of the key tips that salary negotiation experts will tell you is to not reveal your past salary, but those recruiters can be aggresive in trying to get that information. salaryBOOST also wrote a blog post addressing this topic called “Deflect Salary Questions from a Recruiter Like an Expert”. You can get additional phrases to deflect questions about your past salary.

As a HR professional I agree with the advice given here. The hiring manager only needs to know what salary you are looking for, not what you’ve made in the past. However, be sure to do your homework on reasonable salaries for the job you are seeking!